Ohio schools now are allowed to go to voters with levy requests that would provide money exclusively for school safety and security purposes.

“This bill is in response to the tragedy in Chardon,” said state Sen. Scott Oelslager,

R-North Canton, a co-signer of Senate Bill 42, which became law with the recently signed state budget. “The Legislature wanted to do what they could to provide local school districts a tool to secure their buildings.”

Three students died after being shot by a teen at Chardon High School, about 30 miles east of Cleveland, on Feb. 27, 2012.

“This is the beginning of an ongoing discussion in the Legislature to help school districts secure the buildings and protect their children,” Oelslager said.

HOW IT AFFECTS LOCAL SCHOOLS

New Philadelphia City Schools Superintendent Bob Alsept said the money can be used only for such things as capital projects that would improve safety or to hire school resource officers.

“It gives people a chance to vote yes or no on that,” Alsept said. “It’s a good thing.”

He did not anticipate that New Philadelphia will be putting such a levy on the ballot any time in the future. The district is focused now on passage of a $3 million emergency operating levy in November.

In June, the New Philadelphia Board of Education approved a contract with New Philadelphia police to supply the district with a school resource officer for the 2013-2014 school year.

The armed police officer will work about 28 hours per week and will cover any and all school buildings on a staggered basis.

The only other district in Tuscarawas County to have a resource officer is Sandy Valley Local Schools in Magnolia, which contracted with the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Department this spring to supply an armed deputy to patrol its campus grounds.

Those changes followed the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six teachers died at the hands of a gunman.

Following the Sandy Hook tragedy, Newcomerstown Exempted Village Schools Board of Education recently voted to allow certain employees to carry guns in school buildings. The move is not funded by a separate levy, however.

VOTERS DECIDE

Oelslager said Senate Bill 42 gives schools an opportunity to ask for funds to keep their schools safe, but ultimately, it is up to the voters to decide the outcome.

The legislation doesn’t specify when it would take effect, but, the earliest a school could seek a safety levy would be in November. The deadline to put a levy on the November ballot is Aug. 7.